


More Then A Simple Headache

by AHeartForStories



Series: AHeartForStories' Whumptober 2020 [26]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Concussions, F/M, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III Whump, Hurt Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Whump, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:27:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27214930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AHeartForStories/pseuds/AHeartForStories
Summary: Written for Whumptober Day 26. Post-RttE, Pre-Httyd 2. When ice and snow come to Berk, it means Hiccup's home will be covered in boobytraps he cannot see. And that means the occasional accident cannot be avoided.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Stoick the Vast, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson
Series: AHeartForStories' Whumptober 2020 [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949440
Comments: 6
Kudos: 75





	More Then A Simple Headache

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Whumptober prompt: "Concussion"  
> Definitely a lighter Whumptober submission, probably more h/c than actual whump. But I had a lot of fun writing this one.
> 
> Constructive criticism is appreciated!  
> Enjoy!

The hit is instantaneous and so is the pain in his skull. So are the worried rumbling and the gasp that follows his fall. It briefly becomes black before his eyes and Hiccup doesn't make an immediate attempt to get back up.

"Oh no, Hiccup! Are you okay?" Much like Toothless, Astrid is a witness to Hiccup's fall and comes over to help him back up to his feet. There's a smile on her face, though he can't tell if it's out of sympathy or slight amusement or both. Probably both.

"Stupid ice, stupid prosthetic." Hiccup mumbles under his breath as he takes Astrid's hand to get up, rubbing the back of his head as it pounds.

"Wow, I guess your hair isn't as helpful as I thought it'd be." She teases and wipes the snow off his person.

"Oh, making jokes, are we? Didn't think you'd take enjoyment out of my pain." Hiccup responds, dusting himself off. Toothless hovers around him, circling him and crooning.

"I'm-I'm okay, Bud. That was just a little embarrassing, is all." He tells him and pets his nose, though his pounding brain would like to disagree. This is why he doesn't like the cold. Everything freezes over and when you get as much snow as they do, you can't always see the patches of ice until your pegleg slips on them.

And it happened in the middle of the village, too.

"Ah, happens to the best of us, lad." A Berkian man tells him and claps him on the shoulder as he passes. Hiccup gives him a friendly smile, though it does nothing to lessen his embarrassment.

"He's right, this can happen to anyone." Astrid agrees and then watches him appear to taste something funny, his brows knitting together.

"What's wrong?"

"I think I bit on my tongue." Hiccup replies, tasting the uncomfortably metallic tang of blood on his tastebuds.

"Today is not your day, is it?" Astrid wonders out loud.

"Not my day to take a walk, apparently." Hiccup replies, resisting the urge to spit out the blood in his mouth as he continues on his way.

"You don't want to go by Gothi for a second? Have her take a look at that?" Astrid suggests as she follows, Toothless rumbles in agreement as he walks by Hiccup's other side.

"For something as trivial as that? I don't really see the point. Besides, what skull is thicker than a Haddock's?" Attempting to divert their concern elsewhere, Hiccup jokes and pretends like a hellish throbbing isn't currently knocking on the back of his head.

"A Thorston's is. And we don't say that you have thick skulls, we say that you are thickheaded." Hiccup gazes at Astrid in overly exaggerated offense.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Hofferson! You can't just go around insulting my entire clan like that! All two of us!" Astrid laughs and Toothless speaks up.

"Toothless, Bud, stop agreeing to everything she says."

As they walk away and push the incident to the back of their minds, a Terror by the name of Sharpshot lands on the spot where he'd just seen his human friend fall. He'd been in the area when he saw it happen and he needed to take a look.

He sees that he's right, that his eyes aren't deceiving him, as he notices tiny specks of red on the frozen ground.

* * *

Hours later, Hiccup sits at the dinner table with his head in his hands. The pounding inside has gotten worse throughout the day and he's begun to suffer from the light. Every time he just looks at a torch there's a sharp pain behind his eyes.

A block of ice drops on the table, making him jump.

"Ah, sorry, son." Stoick apologizes and comes to sit on the opposite side of the table.

"So what manner of trouble were you in today?" He asks.

"Trouble me? Since when?" Hiccup asks in return, already squinting in the dim light of his home.

Sharpshot jumps down from the rafters and makes a fuss on the table.

"Sharpshot, off the table! Hiccup!"

"Sharpshot, we don't have any leftovers for you, Buddy." Hiccup picks the Terror up like a cat and places him on his lap.

Feeling misunderstood, he starts yipping at Toothless instead, who raises his head in question from his spot by the fire. He murrs back and gets up, understanding the little one's plight. He trods over to Hiccup and starts sniffing his hair.

"Toothless, what're you doing?" Hiccup asks, drawing away and holding the spot he'd hit earlier.

"Hiccup, how hard did you fall this afternoon?" His father asks, probably having heard about it from someone else because why would his son tell him anything?

"I didn't hit the ground that hard." Hiccup tells him, but Sharpshot and Toothless both disagree as they protest.

"Your dragons seem to think otherwise," Stoick states, their reaction not lost on him.

Not finding any way to dispute that, Hiccup instead holds the back of his head quietly.

"And I noticed you've barely eaten. Feeling sick, do we?" So that about the leftovers is clearly a lie and Hiccup hadn't missed the way his stomach churned with nausea.

"It's not a big deal!"

"Clearly it is. Gothi should still be up at this hour, you're paying her a visit." Stoick decides and already gets up from his seat.

"Oh, I don't want to bother her at this hour," Hiccup speaks, watching his dad march towards the door.

"You should've thought of that before you decided to be stubborn." He tells him and grabs his cloak and Hiccup's furs.

"Oh great," Hiccup mutters and leaves his chair.

* * *

The next day, Hiccup still lies in bed late in the morning on Gothi's orders. He has only just woken up, but still feels just as tired as the evening before. Toothless lies in bed with him and is taking up the majority of the space. The dragon's head rests on his shoulder while Hiccup lies on his side.

He's looking up at Astrid through tired eyes as she leans against the post near the stairs to the ground floor.

"So what did she say?" She asks with a knowing, but still sympathetic, smile.

"Concussion." Hiccup sighs. Astrid nods to show him she heard him, barely fighting the smugness she feels.

"You want to tell me "I told you so"?" Hiccup asks, able to read it off her face.

"I do, but I won't." She says and approaches, sitting on the edge of the bed on what little space he has left. Hiccup watches her sit down, but then he closes his eyes. The candlelight on his bedside table might not be bright enough to hurt, but the pounding still demands that he not see a thing.

"How bad is it?" She asks, leaning on a hand.

"Bad enough that Gothi wants me to stay in bed?" Hiccup attempts to turn onto his back before he answers, but Toothless' size doesn't allow him that much luxury and so he has to settle for this.

"In that case," Astrid says and decides to divide Hiccup's space by half as she comes to lie in front of him.

"Oh come on, Astrid." Hiccup groans in dismay, but does take her in his arms.

"Don't you dare groan, I know you don't entirely oppose of this." She scolds him, pressing her ear against his chest.

"That's a really long way of saying that you see this as an excuse for a nap and you're not taking 'no' for an answer." Hiccup retorts. Doesn't matter if his head pounds or not, the sass must come.

Astrid laughs, but doesn't dispute that. Hiccup opens his eyes again, his concussion not stopping him from gazing at his girlfriend. Toothless' snoring fills the silence.

"Good night, Babe," Astrid tells him, not blind to the fact that it isn't even midday yet, and Hiccup nods to show her that he will in just a second. He takes a lock and puts it behind her ear. He does like having her here.

But then Hiccup closes his eyes to get the sleep that he needs. Not even half an hour later, Hiccup is asleep with his head on Astrid's chest. Astrid is still awake and running her fingers through her boyfriend's hair absentmindedly. She's content staying like this for a little while longer.


End file.
